Excess to another route

[MichaelAMW]

Hello All,

From Nottingham to London I can buy a Weekender, which allows outward travel on Fri/Sat and return on Sat/Sun/Mon/Tue by any train, but only via Grantham. It costs £68.50.

What would be the excess fare if I wished to travel one way via the MML? Assume I am travelling in super off-peak times, when the return is £50.30. hould I expect a zero-fare excess? I know we have talked about excessing between different ticket types before, but since the info isn't readily available I thought I'd ask.

[As it happens, the any-permitted SVR is allowed back on any train from Kings Cross so it isn't the end of the world if this isn't possible.]

Cheers,
Michael.

 

[yorkie]

If an excess applies it is half the difference to change the route, if you are excessing just the return portion. If you are excessing both portions it is the full difference.

As the excess is negative, it's zero.

Some ticket office staff claim that, when changing the route, a Anytime (or Weekender, in this case) cannot be excessed to a (Super) Off Peak. The (false) claim is that when changing route the ticket type must remain the same. They are wrong, as the manual clearly states that the most appropriate fare should be charged and even gives this example:-

Example

A customer holds an Anytime Single from Hereford to Alton routed “not via London”. The customer wishes to travel via London on a day at a time when a Super Off-Peak Single is valid. If the customer does not wish to break their journey, they should be charged the difference between the fare already paid: Anytime Single (£38.50p) and the Super Off-Peak Single (£43). The Excess fare is £5·50. Note: This example is not necessarily the current fare.

In general I'd avoid EMT, but you can get a nice HST to Nottingham with comfy IC70 seats and have loads of seats available at peak time, because the fares are so incredibly expensive. I got the Cutler on a weekday (disruption on the ECML) and the front coach had defective aircon (it was a Meridian) and had no-one in it, and yet there were still loads of seats in the 2nd coach. I think I was the only person to bother going to STP as it was still quicker to sit in a queue of trains near Peterborough for an hour. So I can see why you would want to go that way, you'd probably get a table to yourself. This extravagance is subsidised by East Coast passengers whose trains are extremely busy